Tiger Kloof Ed. Institution

“In the middle of nowhere” is how our Founder would have described the location of the Tiger Kloof Educational Institution in South Africa. The school’s roots go back to the middle of the 19th century. It was closed during apartheid, but was re-opened at the end of the 1990s by motivated “Old Tigers.” Since starting afresh with just 25 year 8 students it has developed into a boarding school which offers hundreds of pupils from the surrounding rural and economically weak region an excellent education, with resolute application of the Round Square IDEALS. During our visit in February 2024 we were able to experience for ourselves the hospitality of the Tiger Kloof community. Directors, teachers, administration staff and the students themselves are all proud of the history and development of the school and were delighted to give us an insight into everyday life in their school.

Meeting our 16 scholarship recipients did the rest; “our” children told us about their dreams for the future and asked about the background of our Foundation and Founder. Once we had warmed to each other we practiced each other’s native languages and sang together.

During our discussions on site ideas arose as if by themselves about how we could expand our cooperation, for example by extending the accommodation in order to enable more children to attend the boarding school, because we were very moved by one sentence of an Old Tiger which the Director of the institution quoted, “The greatest gift which I have ever received in life was my own bed and a table for learning at Tiger Kloof.”